Ranking privates academic rigor

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want your daughter to be crushed by competition in HS, you should have had her apply to the top magnet schools in MD or VA. Even a top high school like Whitman - the top 10% of kids who are competing for Ivy admissions are cut-throat competitive. It is more of a sink or swim environment.

Eh, I have one at one of the listed privates and one in SMCS in MCPS. They're just different types of crushing. The magnet has very intense science and math, but everything outside the program is easy and usually requires little effort. The challenge is largely the speed at which new concepts are introduced and then built upon in the magnet classes.

At the private, all of the core classes and have periods of intensity and it's primarily the overlap of that intensity that is tough - when you have a paper, a lab report, and two tests that require actual studying all in the same week (plus other reading/daily assignments), it becomes a lot. In the magnet, you're concentrating on 2-3 classes very intensely; in the private, you're covering 6.

Thinking about the two going to college, I have no concern with my private school student (who plans to major in engineering) academically. I have some concern about the SMCS student's ability to write college-level essays, but that may be unfounded. That child never has issues in English so I don't see that work.

All the privates listed by OP are great. Pick the one that is right for your family based on co-ed/single sex, commute, community, whatever. You can probably find ego crushing intensity at all of them if that's what you want.

I doubt you have a kid in MCPS SMCS.

Well, you're wrong. Don't know what else to tell you beyond that.

[Anonymous]

WIS is in a league of its own. I wouldn’t put it as least rigorous at all. The kids there are doing the prestigious International Baccalaureate program and several of them do it in two languages. The kids get into a lot of Ivy colleges and other top schools worldwide. There is no more academically challenging program that an IB program, with exception to the STEM specific schools.

[Anonymous]

If your priority is academic rigor, I would have said NCS. But since it looks like she didn’t get in to NCS, I would choose Sidwell.

[Anonymous]

Depends on the grade, too, I think.

Sidwell LS is not rigorous, at all. Potomac's LS and MS/IS is more rigorous, by a long shot, particularly in math and science.

I would say they're on par for HS.

- kids at both

[Anonymous]

I think it’s really sad how many people feel that academic rigor is the key to their child’s success in life. How about some balance in life? And the OP clearly has some issues she needs to work out in therapy. Your child is not you, and if you want to see your child struggle, and seem like you will take pleasure in it, there’s something really wrong with your relationship.

[Anonymous]

All of the schools you named will be academically challenging AND give your daughter the wonderful opportunities for leadership, personal growth, extra-curriculars, and all the bonuses that a top-notch independent education offers. Obviously, you want the balance of rigor and support. And in the early grades you want her to develop a love and enthusiasm for learning.

You can't go wrong with the schools you listed.

[Anonymous]

This again?

You are looking to strangers on an anonymous website to give you some The Private School Guide for Dummies run-down on rigor? What useful information do you think you'll get?

You are looking to make sure your child gets knocked down a peg before college? As though life doesn't find enough ways to do that on its own?

Seriously, OP, leave your kid alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, I'll offer an experience. DD is about to graduate Madeira, and chose it over NCS and a couple of others.

It's not "coddling", but it is designed to not be a pressure cooker. They will push the kids as much as they can handle, but not to the breaking point. It's an individual thing (DD is pushed to the edge of her capability) rather than a collective thing where girls are played against one another.

They engender teamwork more than competition. An example: the graduation speaker isn't based on academic rank; it's a girl chosen by her peers based on an audition process.

In our experience this yields exceptionally self-aware and confident young women who have been in the workplace (successfully) several times in the last few years through the co-curricullum process. It may not be seen by those here (who tend to be very much flag-wavers) as being as rigorous as some others, but it is much more predictably lower pressure and less cut-throat.

There's remarkably little drama and bullying, and there's virtually no mean-girl vibe. Indeed, they encourage each other: during the recent musical, for example, girls cheered their peers who were changing the set between scenes.

DD has been accepted at one of her top-3 choices already. I believe she is exceptionally well prepared not only for college, but for life.

Love reading this. Had the best vibe yesterday at admitted students day.

Me again -- another thought in case anyone is still reading this as an actual source from existing parents.

Two things strike me that I would tell four-years-ago me.

First, the girls really look forward to revisit day as a chance to show who they are. There's not a huge sense of "show" to it but they are proud of their school and rightfully so.

And second, to my point about them being pushed: my DD is not a fan of math, but was encouraged and celebrated even when her results were mid-pack, because these were significant results for her. On the humanities side she soared and achieved things that frankly graduate students would be proud of. So they seemed to figure out how hard to push, and where. And one of the first people to call out her humanities achievements was a math teacher, so they are aware across disciplines and show a care beyond their own subject matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i appreciated this more when you wanted your child crushed by college.

Well I didn’t want to say it, but I do want her taken down a notch in high school. It’s a big world and she needs to know it.

I came from a small town, local “whiz kid” and my elite college destroyed me that I think my life would have been better at my state public university. Being on your own and failing at everything when everyone seems to find it so easy, not a good place.

I’ll be the one to say it 😬

Feels like you may have some unresolved issues.

Don’t thrust those onto your own kids.

Hah I do. But my kid is full teenager and so arrogant about how smart they are. It drives me nuts. I mean, maybe she is really brilliant and hard working? But I want to test her mettle before she has to head out on her own. Her MS experience has not done that.

This is getting a little creepy and I’m starting to feel a bit bad for your child. I think you are supposed to pick the school that will best help her to succeed and grow into the best version of herself. You should not be picking a school to spite her or humble her or “take her down a peg.” It’s not healthy that you appear to feel some kind of intellectual competition with her. Maybe let her pick her own high school and don’t make it about you at all. Is her other parent involved in this decision?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, I'll offer an experience. DD is about to graduate Madeira, and chose it over NCS and a couple of others.

It's not "coddling", but it is designed to not be a pressure cooker. They will push the kids as much as they can handle, but not to the breaking point. It's an individual thing (DD is pushed to the edge of her capability) rather than a collective thing where girls are played against one another.

They engender teamwork more than competition. An example: the graduation speaker isn't based on academic rank; it's a girl chosen by her peers based on an audition process.

In our experience this yields exceptionally self-aware and confident young women who have been in the workplace (successfully) several times in the last few years through the co-curricullum process. It may not be seen by those here (who tend to be very much flag-wavers) as being as rigorous as some others, but it is much more predictably lower pressure and less cut-throat.

There's remarkably little drama and bullying, and there's virtually no mean-girl vibe. Indeed, they encourage each other: during the recent musical, for example, girls cheered their peers who were changing the set between scenes.

DD has been accepted at one of her top-3 choices already. I believe she is exceptionally well prepared not only for college, but for life.

Love reading this. Had the best vibe yesterday at admitted students day.

Me again -- another thought in case anyone is still reading this as an actual source from existing parents.

Two things strike me that I would tell four-years-ago me.

First, the girls really look forward to revisit day as a chance to show who they are. There's not a huge sense of "show" to it but they are proud of their school and rightfully so.

And second, to my point about them being pushed: my DD is not a fan of math, but was encouraged and celebrated even when her results were mid-pack, because these were significant results for her. On the humanities side she soared and achieved things that frankly graduate students would be proud of. So they seemed to figure out how hard to push, and where. And one of the first people to call out her humanities achievements was a math teacher, so they are aware across disciplines and show a care beyond their own subject matter.

No need for more convincing. We are on board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i appreciated this more when you wanted your child crushed by college.

Well I didn’t want to say it, but I do want her taken down a notch in high school. It’s a big world and she needs to know it.

I came from a small town, local “whiz kid” and my elite college destroyed me that I think my life would have been better at my state public university. Being on your own and failing at everything when everyone seems to find it so easy, not a good place.

You sound a little unbalanced. Most people want to set their kids up for success-- not failure. If you don't believe in your kid- send her to public. Save your money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i appreciated this more when you wanted your child crushed by college.

Well I didn’t want to say it, but I do want her taken down a notch in high school. It’s a big world and she needs to know it.

I came from a small town, local “whiz kid” and my elite college destroyed me that I think my life would have been better at my state public university. Being on your own and failing at everything when everyone seems to find it so easy, not a good place.

You sound a little unbalanced. Most people want to set their kids up for success-- not failure. If you don't believe in your kid- send her to public. Save your money.

I am sure you didn’t mean to say that parents who send their kids to public don’t believe in their kids. Right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i appreciated this more when you wanted your child crushed by college.

Well I didn’t want to say it, but I do want her taken down a notch in high school. It’s a big world and she needs to know it.

I came from a small town, local “whiz kid” and my elite college destroyed me that I think my life would have been better at my state public university. Being on your own and failing at everything when everyone seems to find it so easy, not a good place.

You sound a little unbalanced. Most people want to set their kids up for success-- not failure. If you don't believe in your kid- send her to public. Save your money.

I am sure you didn’t mean to say that parents who send their kids to public don’t believe in their kids. Right?

This is crazy. Sending your kid to public when that's what they want & you could easily afford private is, in some ways, the ultimate expression that you believe in them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i appreciated this more when you wanted your child crushed by college.

Well I didn’t want to say it, but I do want her taken down a notch in high school. It’s a big world and she needs to know it.

I came from a small town, local “whiz kid” and my elite college destroyed me that I think my life would have been better at my state public university. Being on your own and failing at everything when everyone seems to find it so easy, not a good place.

You sound a little unbalanced. Most people want to set their kids up for success-- not failure. If you don't believe in your kid- send her to public. Save your money.

I am sure you didn’t mean to say that parents who send their kids to public don’t believe in their kids. Right?

Right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Per your request, here is the definitive, objective, inarguable, uncontestable, and incontrovertible ranking (in order of most to least rigor):

Madeira
WIS
Potomoc
Maret
Holton Arms
GDS
Sidwell

Lol. This must be upper school only. Definitely not our experience in “rigor” in lower school or even most of middle school.